A guide to buying Christmas trees online

How to choose a supplier to buy your online Christmas tree from

This article has been written to help you identify thebetter Christmas Tree Suppliers.

There are 16 key differences between Christmas Tree Suppliers.

Firstly Christmas Tree Quality depends on these 6 things:

1. Freshness of Christmas Trees:

This is absolutely vital for your perfect Real Christmas Tree. If the trees are cut down too soon, they will end up lying about in lorries and yards where they start to dry out which is the worst thing you can do to a Christmas Tree to make it lose its needles. Make sure your Christmas Tree Supplier harvests fresh.

2. Hand picked and graded.

Some Christmas tree farms are very lazy on this part. The trees should be hand selected to ensure that the stems are straight and true, the branches are dense and even and that the Christmas Tree is not damaged by pests or diseases.

3. Grade:

This is how Christmas trees are differentiated. Make sure that you are receiving a Grade 1 Christmas tree. The poorer grades are available in the trade at a cheaper price but they will be disappointing when they are put up in your home.

4. Frost hardened:

Christmas trees prefer to be "frost hardened" before harvest as this helps toughen up the needles so that they stay on longer. To ensure this, you should choose trees grown in the north of the country, preferably Scotland and preferably central Scotland or the Angus glens where it is colder and drier.

5. Pruned to produce the perfect shape:

Nordmann Christmas trees do not naturally produce the perfect Christmas tree shape. Make sure that your tree has been trimmed through its life to produce this shape. If not, you will end up with a straggly tree which will be hard to accommodate and decorate.

6. Slower growing= denser branches:

Choose a Christmas tree from Christmas tree farm that does not force their trees too hard. Yet again Scottish trees benefit from the cooler, slower growing climate.

There are a further 10 other factors that you should consider when selecting your Christmas Tree Suppliers:

Speed of tree delivery:

If the delivery time is over 2-3 days then the tree is going to be in the hot delivery chain for too long without any water. Select a supplier that offers their Christmas trees with next day delivery ensuring your Christmas tree’s freshness.

Your choice of delivery date:

Some Christmas tree suppliers do not give you a choice of delivery date. You should look around until you are offered a company that will deliver on your selected weekday. Saturday deliveries will always carry a premium.

Guarantee:

This is vital. How can you be sure that you will like your Christmas Tree when it arrives? After all you haven’t even seen it, therefore it could be of poor quality, regardless what the glossy websites say. There are suppliers out there who offer a full money back guarantee.

Imported or local?

This is vital for your satisfaction. There are large companies out there bringing in bulk loads of Christmas trees from all over Europe. The freshness and quality of these trees is always suspect. Beware of companies offering cheap trees who can’t tell you where they were produced.

Payment by all cards including AMEX or Paypal:

When buying Christmas trees on-line, why should you have to compromise the way you want to pay. Make sure you choose a Christmas Tree company who carries all credit cards including Amex, and for the keen ebayers out there who choose to use paypal, demand to use that system.

Discount on grouped items:

Not all companies offer grouped product discounts, shop around and make sure you can get your Christmas tree stand and Christmas lights grouped into the purchase so that you can save money.

Free and friendly phone advice:

There is nothing worse than companies who don’t answer the phone or who put poorly trained operators onto the phones. Choose a Christmas tree company who name the knowledgeable operators you will talk to and who makes sure everyone answers the phone quickly and with a smile.

>No hidden delivery charges:

Beware of the "hidden Delivery Charges" So many companies keep this gem of information from you until you have registered and started down the purchase route. There should be no premium for having your Christmas Tree delivered anywhere on mainland UK. The price should be included and stated on the main product page.

All year round business experience:

Watch out for the fly by night Christmas companies who only appear for a short trading period at Christmas. You should select your Christmas Tree from a company that successfully supplies on-line products all year round since they are better experienced and have superior delivery systems and therefore fewer problems at this very important time of year.

Do they supply the correct stands to keep the needles on your real Christmas tree?

Make sure that your company supplies the correct type of Christmas Tree Stand to keep the needles on your Real Christmas tree. It must be able to contain water since a tree will use up to 1 litre of water a day depending on how you look after it. To keep the needles on a Nordmann fir Christmas tree, the water is the most important thing. Keep the tree as if it were a cut flower. Keep the temperature down near the tree, possibly turning off any radiators or heaters in close proximity to your Real Christmas Tree. Consider lowering the temperature of the room you are keeping your tree in, even if it is only overnight.

Nordmann-christmas-trees.com
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